


Hard Way

by darthaline



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Future Fic, Gen, Guilt, Season 3 Spoilers, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:28:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21537472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthaline/pseuds/darthaline
Summary: Viren is nothing if not stubborn, so he lives.
Relationships: Claudia & Soren & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Claudia & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Harrow & Viren (The Dragon Prince), Soren & Viren (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	Hard Way

Sometimes Viren wishes that he was dead. That is a weak thought and Viren is weak, so he despises himself for it. The thought persists but Viren is nothing if not stubborn, so he lives.

By all means he should have been dead. Claudia says he was, and she has no reason to lie. He lives because he owes everything to her, and to Soren, and some debts cannot be repaid.

Sometimes Viren forbids himself to think about Harrow.

They say that you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. That is, of course, bullshit. Everyone who has ever done anything worthy of being called heroic was a villain in someone else's story, it’s just that this someone else didn’t live to tell the tale. He’s still not thinking about Harrow.

They have an arrangement now, that Soren and Claudia would come once a week to see him. It took him months to get that arrangement, and he is truly grateful for it. It’s still new and fragile and he is cleaning the cottage the whole day before that. He doubts they care, but he knows he needs to do at least something, and if his brain is incapable of being quiet, at least his hands can do something useful.

He used to be skilled with words, but those hang in the air heavily between them and so he tries and lets his hands speak when he can. He collects the herbs for the tea himself. Sweetened camomille for Soren and a lavender blend for Claudia, just like they used to have when they were kids. With a plate of freshly baked oatmeal cookies.

Out of the two of them, Soren was the first to actually start talking to him.The first time he did, Viren had to cut the meeting short because he couldn’t stop crying.

Claudia is still often quiet around him, having occasional bursts of her old cheerful self shine, only to hide away when she remembers herself. It hurts but Viren takes what he can get.

He lets them talk and he listens. After they leave, he finally thinks about Harrow. Harrow took an easy way out, and Viren despises him for it, but at the end of the day, despite all the things he did, despite the hurt he caused to his children and many many others, Viren cannot help but be very selfishly glad that him living wasn’t his decision to make.


End file.
